Publisher's Summary

Twice upon a time, Prince Rupert and Princess Julia saved the Forest Kingdom. They have earned the right to live happily ever after. But there' s a blue moon on the rise... Hawk and Fisher, famous for their years of keeping the peace in Haven, are really quite happy being legends. They gave up the hero business when they decided they'd grown too old for it. Now they run the Hero Academy, training young hopefuls to be heroes. Legends never die, but it seems they cannot retire, either. Hawk and Fisher's adult children, Jack and Gillian, have been kidnapped. They were taken by the Demon Prince, an old enemy from the Forest Kingdom who challenges the couple to one final battle for their lives. But Hawk and Fisher believe there' s another motive behind the abductions, one connected to a case they worked in Haven many years ago - a case they refuse to discuss. They have no choice but to return to the Forest Kingdom, to be Prince Rupert and Princess Julia one last time in one last story - of the kind of things that happen only once in a blue moon...

What a great story from Simon R. Green! I was a little sketchy about getting this because I have found Simon R. Green to be hit or miss for me (sadly more miss than hit but I LOVED all the Deathwatcher novellas but some of his other stuff just left me lost in space...) but I am glad I picked this up. I was laughing within five minutes of starting and immediately recognized John Keating from Gwynne's "Malice" which was also spectacularly read. Love Keating, loved this book!

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Inquisitivesage

New York, NY

29/06/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Needs editing"

15 hours on the cutting room floor might result in an exciting, romping tale. Unfortunately, lacked Author's creativity demonstrated in the Nightside series. Lots of characters, but generally run of mill plot. Too much time in characterization of too many secondary and tertiary characters.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Angel

Seale, AL, United States

09/05/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"Cotton Candy spiked with razor blades"

Not my cup of tea. Didn't finish it. Lost interest about halfway through after one too many discordant notes. You're muddling through, mostly inadvertently tallying the count as one more 'borrowed' story item/theme/scene appears and then WTF?! as the cartoonish plot point registers and you realize that it's actually some seriously screwed up stuff. The characters are unsurprisingly 2 dimensional. It would probably make a great movie for horror fans with the right treatment.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Michalena Tymchyn

05/06/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Mediocre"

Any additional comments?

Simon R Green has become hit or miss for me. And unfortunately as much as it pains me to say it, this one is a miss. I loved the first 2 books of this series when I read them over 15 years ago and the Hawk and Fisher short story collections. And his Nightside stories are fantastic. But I can't stand the Secret Histories series and this final book of the Forest Kingdom seemed to have the same disjointed notes, and slapped together phrases of information. The Forest Kingdom books have always been best with snappy dialogue and the banter between Hawk and Fisher. This book took way to long with descriptions, the dialogue through the first three quarters of the book was slow, and Hawk and Fisher seemed old and world-worn. It didn't get interesting until almost the end, when all the threads and characters came together. Which is a shame, as I get attached to characters and I was hoping for a good return of Hawk and Fisher.

Thank goodness I was listening on audio, so I could multi-task, audio is the only thing that got me through this book. I tried to read a paperback copy and threw it away in disgust. That being said, I really didn't like the narrator. I'm new to audible so maybe I'm a little picky but this narrator's character voices were way too similar. Half the time I couldn't tell who was speaking. And his female characters were just unbearable. They all sounded like whiny, squeaky children. I know it can be hard to do voices of the opposite gender but it is possible. For instance, check out the Jane Yellowrock books, that narrator is spot on with male voices and accents. Or a male narrator that does decent with female voices is Marsters with the Dresden novels.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Kris Danforth

04/05/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"great ending for a thrilling trilogy"

loved it. read all three l. if you like terry Pratchett, you will love this series.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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